Howlin' For You
by nondescriptusername
Summary: What if someone else was out in the woods with Scott and Stiles that first night? Spoiler alert: in this world, there is.


**All dialogue and characters taken from Teen Wolf are not my property.**

"Mom, have you seen Badru?" Cara called out, staring at her dog's still full food bowl.

Her mom looked up from where she was working on her laptop, her face concerned. "No, sweetie, not since before dinner," she said. She frowned. "He probably got out through the garage again. Do you want your father to take the car out and look for him? Or you can take yours?"

"No, I'll go," Cara said, looking at the clock on the microwave. "You know how grouchy Dad gets when he isn't in bed by midnight, and it's already half past eleven. I'll try the nature preserve, that's where he's headed the last couple times. I think he likes to pretend that he's a wild animal, like a wolf or something," she said with a small smile.

"Okay... just be careful," her mom said. "Take your phone and your pepper spray, and try not to stay out too late. You have school tomorrow, and it's a full moon tonight."

Cara smiled at that. Her mom had lived in the United States since she was eighteen, but nearly thirty-five years later she still hadn't managed to completely set aside her old world superstitions about full moons. "Don't worry mom, I'll be smart. I don't like being up too late either," she said, giving her mom a smile as she headed out the door. Hopping in the car, she quickly drove the ten minutes to the nearest entrance to the nature preserve, then parked and got out. She looked up at the huge full moon overhead, grateful that it was bright enough she wouldn't need to use her phone flashlight. Carefully, she stepped over the chain sign saying that the park was closed and headed into the woods, periodically calling out Badru's name.

She'd been walking for about ten minutes when she heard a faint noise. Cara looked around nervously, suddenly very aware of the fact that she was in a nature preserve meant for wild animals in the middle of the night, and she was very alone. She heard movement to her left and froze, listening. Whoever, or whatever, it was, it was coming towards her. As quietly as she could, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her keys, getting a solid grip on the small container of mace she kept hooked on it. She heard male voices and tensed, though she relaxed slightly knowing that it at least wasn't a bear coming towards her. When the voices got close enough, she popped out, aiming the tiny spray can at the oncoming figures.

Both figures instantly reacted, one by screaming and falling backwards and the just standing there staring at her, dumbfounded. Recognizing that neither was actually a threat, she breathed a sigh of relief and lowered the mace, eyeing the two figures in front of her.

"Cara Daniels? What the hell are you doing here?" the boy on the ground said, scrambling off the ground.

Cara raised her eyebrows at the pair. "Uh, looking for my dog?" she said, confused. "Who are you? Why the hell are you two wandering around the woods at night?" Pausing, looking at the other boy dusting off the jacket of the boy who fell, she grinned a little bit. "Actually, forget that second question. I'm not sure I want to know. But seriously, who are you?"

The guy who fell stare at her. "Stiles? Stilinski?"

Cara blinked at him, trying to get a better look at his face in the dark, then looked over at his friend again. "Right. You're a sophomore too, right? And you're... Michaels?" she said, looking over at his friend.

"McCall. Scott's good too," he said with a smile and a goofy little wave.

Suddenly, Stiles's head perked up. "Shit, Scott, we have to hide. My dad's coming."

Quickly, Scott and Stiles moved to hide behind trees as the voices came closer. Following their lead, Cara hid too, though she wasn't sure why. Peering around the tree, she saw the sheriff spot Stiles and pull him out from his hiding place, then call out for Scott. When no one answered, the sheriff dragged away his son, and Scott sagged against the tree. Once the others left, she went over to him and asked quietly "Um, Scott? Why, exactly, were we just hiding from the police? What are they even doing out here at night?"

Scott gave her an abashed smile. "Well... Stiles was kind of eavesdropping on his dad's police radio, and he found out that the police were looking for the other half of this girl's body somewhere out here, and so we decided to come and look too."

Cara stared at him, bewildered. "You're kidding me. You heard that there was half of a body missing, so you decided to go wander around the woods in the middle of the night looking for it? Are you two normally this stupid, or is this new for you?"

Scott's grin looked even dopier. "Uh... this is pretty normal, honestly."

Cara shook her head. "Okay, whatever. Even if you want to be stupid, I'm not, so I'm getting out of here. You coming with me? Or do you feel like running around the woods with a murderer on the loose by yourself?"

At her words, Scott's grin disappeared and his eyes widened. "Uh, shit. I didn't think about that."

Cara nodded, and the pair started walking, trying to find their way out of the woods. They walked for awhile in silence before Scott finally broke the silence. "So... your dog is missing?"

Cara nodded. "Yeah. He's a german shepherd. Badru."

Scott looked over at her and smiled a little. "Right, I thought I'd seen you before. Outside of school, I mean. I work at the animal clinic."

"Right, I think I've seen you there-" Cara started to say when suddenly this massive stampede of deer came out of nowhere and went tearing past them. Startled, she stumbled backwards and slipped on the edge of a small hill, falling backwards and sliding down it. "Shit," she said, rubbing at her ankle.

"Cara? You okay?" Scott's voice came from the top of the hill, and carefully made his way down it, phone out to give him some light.

"Not really. I think I twisted my ankle," she said, wincing as she tested it. She reached in her pocket for her phone so she could use the light to look at her ankle, then swore when she realized her phone was the only thing in her pocket. Her keys must have fallen out when she fell. "Scott, can you help me? I dropped my keys." When Scott didn't answer, she looked back at him to find him wide-eyed and hyperventilating. "Scott?"

Shaking, he reached into his pocket and pulled out an inhaler to take several deep breaths, then pointed behind her. "Th- there- there- body!"

Slowly, Cara turned to see the top half of a girl's body lying on the ground behind her. She froze, then desperately scrambled to her feet. "Shitshitshitshitshit. Scott. We gotta get out of here!"

Suddenly, a loud howl came from the forest behind them, and she spun around to see a pair of glowing red eyes in the darkness of the woods. Instantly, she grabbed Scott's hand and ran as fast as she could, dragging the boy behind her. Together, the pair ran through the woods until Cara's ankle gave out and she fell heavily to the ground. Scott turned to help her up, and Cara saw the monstrous figure of a distorted-looking wolf with red eyes rise up behind him. She screamed, and Scott turned just as the beast closed its monstrous jaws on Scott's side. Scott gasped, and Cara pushed herself backwards against a tree, crying and covering her face with her hands. Scott fell to his knees, holding his side, and the wolf turned towards Cara, growling. It stalked towards her, so close she could feel its hot breath on her face, and she stared into those eyes, shuddering with fear while trying not to move. Then, suddenly, the beast was gone and there was just Scott, dragging her to her feet and behind him as they fled, not slowing until they reached the road. Headlights flared and a car suddenly swerved around them as Cara froze next to Scott, the pair staring at each other in shock.

"What... What just happened?" Scott said, staring at her.

Cara just shook her head and started walking along the road towards the parking lot where she had left her car, then froze. "Shit. I dropped my keys by the body. Do you have a car?" she said, turning to Scott. When he shook his head, she closed her eyes, slowly, then opened her eyes and pulled out her phone.

"Cara?" her best friend said, groggily. "Why the hell are you calling me at almost one in the morning?"

Cara sighed. "I need a favor, Alex."

She heard rustling on the other end of the line. "That favor had better be that you want me to get a full night of beauty sleep so I don't look like a zombie tomorrow."

"Badru managed to get out through my garage again. I figured he ran to the preserve like last time so I drove over here, but I tripped and lost my keys while I was looking for him. Can you bring my spare key? My parents are definitely dead asleep by now, and we're kind of stranded."

"We?" her friend said, sounding suddenly delighted, and Cara winced. "Who is we?"

"Just me... and Scott McCall. You know, from school? He and his friend were out here in the woods too, and I kind of ran into them."

"Were they looking for a lost dog too?" Alex asked mischievously.

"No, they were looking for a dead body," Cara said.

The other end of the line went dead silent for a solid ten seconds. "What the fuck?" Alex exclaimed, loudly.

"Look, Alex, it's been a weird night, and I just want to go home. Will you please just bring me the damn key?" Cara said, her facade of calm slipping as her voice cracked.

"Right, yeah. Key. I'm on my way," her friend said, quickly hanging up the phone.

Cara looked over at Scott. "My friend is bringing my spare key. You want a ride home?"

Scott looked at her for a second, then shook his head. "No, thanks though. I don't live that far. I'll just walk."

Cara gave him a dubious look. "Scott, some...thing just attacked you, and it could still be out there. Are you sure that's a good idea?"

Scott shrugged. "Yeah, don't worry about it."

Cara sighed, running her hand through her hair. "Look, if you insist on doing this, at least text me when you get home, okay?"

"I don't have your number," Scott said, awkwardly, and Cara rolled her eyes.

"Look, give me your phone." Scott passed his phone over, and Cara quickly entered her number. "There. Now, text me when you get home, okay?" she said, passing it back.

"I will," he said. "I promise."

She nodded, and the two started walking in different directions. It was only after a few minutes of walking that Cara suddenly realized that Scott wasn't the only one that was walking around alone with some murderous thing on the loose. Wrapping her arms tightly around herself, she sped up, trying not to think about how vulnerable she was. She didn't even have her little can of mace on her anymore. Trying not to panic, she walked towards the parking lot as quickly as she could on her twisted ankle, shooting nervous glances towards the dark woods. She reached her car and braced her back against it, shaking with fear. She stared into the woods, eyes straining, and realized that there were two eyes staring back at her. Unlike last time, though... these eyes were an icy blue, not the bright red that the monster that had attacked Scott had. She took a step forward, trying to see more, but at that moment a pair of headlights swung into the parking lot and temporarily blinded her. When she blinked and looked back, the eyes were gone.

"Cara!" Alex called out as she climbed out of the car. She hurried over to her best friend, turning her to face her. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I... I'm fine," she said, blinking and focusing on her friends face.

"Are you sure?" Alex said, looking concerned. "You don't seem fine."

Cara shook her head, trying to clear the fog of fear. "Yeah, just majorly freaked out. Keys, please?"

Alex held them out. "By the way, you owe me big time for this. And where are the others?"

"Stiles got picked up by the sheriff, and Scott walked home," Cara said, taking the keys.

Alex rolled her eyes as she watched Cara get in the car. "I am definitely getting more details from you tomorrow," she called out to her as she walked to her own car.

Cara shook her head as she started her car. "Don't plan on it," she murmured under her breath to herself. She paused for a second and looked out through the windshield as she pulled away and thought she caught one last glimpse of blue eyes in the woods.

* * *

The next morning Cara pulled up to school early, trying to spot Scott. She'd waited for him to text her almost an hour after she arrived home, before finally passing out from sheer exhaustion. He still hadn't texted her when she woke up, so she hurried to school to make sure he showed up and was okay. When she finally saw him walking up with Stiles, she rushed over and grabbed his arm, irritated.

Scott stared at her, surprised. "Cara? What's up?"

She glared at him, finding his puppy-like goofiness distinctly un-endearing in like . "Well, I kind of assumed the psycho killer in the woods went after you and murdered you, since younever texted mewhen you got home."

"Oh, shit. Sorry, Cara," Scott said sheepishly. "I totally forgot."

Stiles waved his hands dramatically between them. "Hey! Best friend here, out of the loop! What happened last night after my dad dragged me off?"

"We almost got run over by a herd of insane deer, I fell down a hill and found the body, and Scott got attacked by something with red eyes," Cara said, annoyed. "And I lost my keys."

"It was pretty dark, but I'm pretty sure it was a wolf," Scott said, looking at his best friend. "We heard howling before it bit me."

"Dude, there are no wolves in Beacon Hills," Stiles said. "Show me the bite?"

Gingerly, Scott raised his shirt, showing them the large square of gauze taped to his side. Cara hissed sympathetically and Stiles winced, but still had a faintly disbelieving look. "Okay, so that looks bad, but I'm telling you, it couldn't have been a wolf. There haven't been wolves in California in like, sixty years."

"Actually, he's right," Cara said, drawing the boys' attention again.

"Well, what do you think it was?" Scott asked. "You probably got a better look at it than I did, since it attacked me from behind," he said, the two boys looking over at her curiously.

Cara shifted uncomfortably, looking away. "Honestly, I didn't get a good look," she said, the lie sounding flat. "All I know for sure is that it was really big, and it looked like it had red eyes." Stiles looked like he wanted to ask her more questions, so she quickly turned and walked towards the building, the other two following behind her.

"Wait, so you found the body?" Stiles asked, his train of thought returning to his and Scott's original mission. "That's so cool!"

"Not when you literally trip over the body in the dark," Cara said under her breath.

Stiles ignored her, choosing to focus on the success of their hunt. "Oh, god, that is freakin' awesome. I mean, this is seriously gonna be the best thing that's happened to this town since - Since the birth of Lydia Martin," Stiles said, watching the red-headed girl flounce past. "Hey, Lydia - You look - Like you're gonna ignore me. You're the cause of this, you know," he said, turning to Scott. "Draggin' me down to your nerd depths. I'm a nerd by association. I've been scarlet-nerded by you."

"Speaking as an objective third party, I'd say you're both pretty nerdy," Cara added. "Anyway, I left my keys in the woods last night. I'm going to go back to them after school. Just so you guys know."

Scott and Stiles traded a look and Scott spoke up. "We'll come too. I'm pretty sure I lost my inhaler when you lost your keys," Scott said.

"And we want to find the dead body again!" Stiles added, then flinched when Cara glared at him. "Sorry! Sorry."

Cara sighed. "Fine. I'll meet you at the preserve after class?"

"After lacrosse practice," Scott added quickly. When Cara raised her eyebrows at him, he shrugged. "I need to make first line this year," he said, sheepishly.

"Sure you will, bud," Stiles said, putting an arm around his friend's shoulders.

Cara sighed. "Fine. After lacrosse practice," she said over her shoulder, walking away to her first class.

Stiles and Scott stared after her. "You do realize that she's never talked to us before today, and she's already telling us what to do, right?" Stiles said, sounding more impressed than irritated.

Scott shrugged. "Well, at least she wants to go into the woods during the day, instead of at night with a murderer running around," he said.

Stiles glared at him. "Shut up," he said, pulling him towards their first class.

* * *

Cara managed to make it until lunch before Alex cornered her to ask about last night.

"So?" Alex said, setting down her lunch tray next to Cara's and sitting down next to her.

Cara looked over at her, eyebrows raised. "So what?"

"So, what happened last night?" Alex said, eagerly. "You, in the woods, middle of the night with Stilinski and McCall..."

Cara rolled her eyes. "I told you, nothing happened. Badru went missing, I went looking for him, I ran into them in the woods, Stiles got dragged away by his dad, I tripped and fell down a hill, nearly hit a dead body, Scott got attacked by a wolf, and you came to drop off my keys. Normal night."

"You found a dead body?" Alex said, almost squeaking.

"I nearly hit a dead body," Cara said. "Technically not even a whole dead body. It was literally the top half of a body. Seriously freaked me out. I'm going to have nightmares for a month."

Alex shook her head. "I don't even know what to say," she said. "My best friend goes on a crazy adventure in the woods with two cute boys and doesn't even invite me."

"Technically, I did call you," Cara said with a small grin.

"That does not count and you know it," Alex said, rolling her eyes. "Next time there is an adventure, you will call me before the interesting stuff happens."

"I doubt that will happen again, but I'll try," Cara said, giving her best friend a mildly amused look.

Before the conversation could continue, Lydia, Jackson, and Danny arrived at the table and sat down, Lydia dragging a pretty brunette behind her. "Allison, this is Alex and Cara," she said, nodding at each of them. The girls smiled at each other as Lydia continued. "Basically, we've all known each other since we were kids, so we've been friends forever. They're cool enough to associate with, if Jackson and I aren't around."

Alex rolled her eyes as Cara tried to hold back a biting response to Lydia's remark. "Thanks, Lydia," Alex said, her tone mildly irritated, and Lydia rolled her eyes.

"You know what I mean," she said, dismissively. "So, Allison, what class do you have next?" she asked, her voice sugary sweet as she focused on the new girl. Allison pulled out her schedule and looked it over. "Um... Chemistry with Harris, and then French? With Miss Merrel?"

"Morrel," Cara said, smiling at her. "I've got that one too. You'll like her, she's pretty good, and she actually teaches us useful French, not just pointless formal stuff. I think she lived in France for a while or something."

"And you'll have chemistry with us four, so you don't have to worry about getting stuck with any losers," Lydia said dismissively. Cara rolled her eyes, then caught Allison making a similar expression and grinned. Whoever Allison Argent was, she at least didn't seem like she bought into Lydia's whole attitude about popularity, so she couldn't be all bad.

* * *

Cara looked up when Allison walked into the room and smiled at her, waving her over to the desk next to hers. Allison smiled gratefully and sat next to her. "Cara, right?" she said. Cara nodded, and Allison smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I've just met so many people today, I'm worried I'm going to forget someone's name and condemn myself to high school hell forever," she said.

Cara smiled back at her as Miss Morrel started the class. "Don't worry," she said. "I barely meet Lydia's social standards and she hasn't shunned me yet, so you should be safe for a while."

When class ended, the two girls stood, gathering their stuff. As Allison was loading her bag, her books fell to the classroom floor, papers going everywhere. Cara immediately knelt to help her, passing papers and books to her as she picked them up. Idly looking over the last couple papers she'd grabbed as she waited for Allison to grab a last book off the floor, she read Allison's birthday and suddenly realized that she was reading her personal information off her school entry paperwork. She quickly handed the papers to Allison, who blushed when she saw the paper Cara was looking at. The girls walked out of the room in a slightly awkward silence before Cara broke it. "So... you're almost seventeen?" she asked, looking over at the girl curiously, and Allison flushed.

"Yes," she said, flatly, clearly not wanting to talk about it. Cara let the silence stand for a minute before smiling at her.

"Well, that makes me feel a little better," she said. Allison looked at her askance, and Cara shrugged. "I turned seventeen at the start of October," she admitted, and Allison's eyes widened.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry if I was rude," she said, her voice guilty. "I just get so annoyed with people asking me if I'm stupid or something because I'm seventeen and a sophomore in high school."

Cara gave her a sympathetic smile. "I know what you mean. All the moving around, right?" she asked, and Allison nodded. "Same. My dad worked as a diplomat, so I didn't move to Beacon Hills until I was twelve," she said, simply. "The curriculums were screwed up, so I they placed me a year back."

"I thought Lydia said you'd all been friends since you were little?" Allison asked, confused, and Cara shrugged.

"Lydia tends to generalize things," she said, her voice a bit dry, and Allison laughed. "She doesn't mean any harm, I don't think- she just genuinely consider it important enough to remember. She mostly puts up with me because I'm friends with Alex and my family's pretty well-off, but I don't think she and I have ever spent more than a grand total of five minutes alone together in the last five years."

"Yeah, she does seem really intense. Is she always like that?" she asked.

"Sort of. I have this theory that Lydia is secretly brilliant, but she doesn't want people to think she's a nerd, so she really pushes the whole popular girl stereotype," Cara said. "But like I said, we're not that good of friends. For what it's worth, though, I really do think she likes you."

"Well, at least I now have someone else's opinion and I know she's not secretly planning to dump pig's blood on me at prom or something," Allison said, drawing a laugh from Cara. "Anyways, can you do me a favor, and not say anything about my birthday? I really do hate dealing with questions like that, and I doubt everyone else is going to be as understanding as you."

"Well, I do have an unusual point of view," Cara said with a grin, drawing another smile from Allison. "But I think I can do that. Anyways, we should hurry," she said, heading towards their lockers. "We're going to be late for the lacrosse practice."

Allison walked to her own locker and opened it, tucking her books in. "Is lacrosse really that big of a deal here, that people actually go watch practice?" she asked, seeming a little taken aback.

Cara shrugged. "I mean, more so to people like Lydia and Jackson than others," she admitted. "But our lacrosse team is really good, and honestly, all the hottest guys in the school are on the team. That's why Alex goes, at least. I don't normally go, but I promised a couple-" Cara hesitated, not really knowing how to describe her relationship with Stiles and Scott before continuing- "friends on the team that I would run an errand with them after practice, so today's the exception for me."

"Well, I'm glad I won't be the only one there who doesn't really care about it then," Allison said, with a smile as Lydia and Alex walked up to them.

"What are you guys waiting for? Practice starts in five minutes," Lydia said, annoyed, and latched onto Allison's arm, dragging her away.

Cara rolled her eyes again, and Alex grinned at her reaction. "Is it even worth it to ask you to come?" she asked, teasingly.

"Actually, I figured I might as well. I have to go back into the woods to look for my keys later, and Stilinski and McCall agreed to come with me after their practice. Scott lost his inhaler last night too," Cara said, shutting her locker.

Alex raised her eyebrows. "More time in the wild with those too? And you're willing to go to watch lacrosse practice for them. Maybe it's love," Alex said, fluttering her lashes dramatically, and Cara shoved her.

"You know I hate you, right?" she said, fake-scowling at Alex, who just grinned in response.

"I love you too, sweetie," she said, pressing a kiss to Cara's cheek as the two girls walked towards the lacrosse field. They slid into the bleachers next to Allison and Lydia, who was scanning the field like she was on the hunt for fresh meat. Cara noticed Scott and Stiles looking at them and gave a little wave, which they both returned with surprised looks on their faces. Cara pulled out a book from her bag and settled into it as the lacrosse coach walked up to Scott and tossed some equipment at him. He and Scott talked for a minute before Scott went into the goal.

Allison watched him roll his shoulders and leaned over to Lydia. "Who is that?" Allison asked.

"I'm not sure who he is," Lydia said dismissively, looking at Scott. "Why?"

"He's in my English class," Allison said. "He loaned me a pen this morning."

Alex looked over to see who they were looking at. "That's Scott McCall," she said, a mischievous look on her face. "He's friends with Cara."

"Hm?" Cara said absentmindedly, not looking up from her book. "Oh, I don't really know him that well."

The girls watched as Scott got hit in the face with a ball, Lydia laughing as the other two winced sympathetically. Scott got up from the ground and braced himself as the next player came towards him and threw the ball, which he neatly caught. The whole team seemed genuinely surprised by this, and Stiles whooped a little bit. He neatly caught the shots of the next three players too, getting more and more cheers each time.

"He seems like he's good," Allison said, thoughtfully, and Lydia nodded, eyebrows raised.

"Yeah, really good," she said thoughtfully as Jackson pushed his way to the front of the line of players waiting to take their shots.

"Uh oh," Alex said under her breath as he stepped forward. Sensing something was amiss, Allison tensed, and even Cara looked up to see Jackson wind up his shot. He ran forward and jumped, launching the ball at Scott, who caught it neatly.

Stiles whooped loudly, jumping up, and Alex and Lydia both jumped up and cheered as well, Lydia shooting Jackson a smirk as she sat back down. Cara just rolled her eyes and looked back down at her book, not bothering to pay attention for the rest of the practice.

* * *

An hour later, Cara and the boys were walking through the woods, doing their best to trace their route back to where they had found the body. Scott and Stiles were talking about Scott's surprising performance at the lacrosse practice- apparently, Scott had been completely awful before, so the fact that he had done so well during practice was shocking. "I don't know what it was," Scott said as they crossed a small creek. "It was like I had all the time in the world to catch the ball. And that's not the only weird thing. I've been hearing stuff I shouldn't be able to hear, smell things-"

"Smell things?" Stiles asked, sounding skeptical. "Like what?"

"Like, the mint mojito gum in your pocket," Scott said, looking back at him.

"I don't even have any mint mojito-" Stiles said dismissively, reaching into his pocket to prove it and hesitating when he pulled out a stick of green gum. The two boys stopped and stared at it until Cara sighed.

"Look, as fascinating as this gum talk is, can we focus on finding the body so I can get my keys and we can call the police?" she said, frustrated, and they started walking again.

"So this all started with a bite," Stiles said thoughtfully, a slow grin creeping across his face.

"What if it's like, some kind of infection or something?" Scott asked, worried. "Like my body's releasing adrenaline before it goes into shock or something?"

Cara rolled her eyes. "I'm pretty sure it's not an infection," she said.

"Actually," Stiles said, pressing his lips together to keep his grin from growing, "I think I've heard of this. It's a specific kind of infection."

"Seriously?" Scott said, growing visibly more concerned.

"Yeah," Stiles said. "Yeah, I think it's called lycanthropy."

Cara snorted at that and Scott looked at her oddly before refocusing on Stiles. "Is that serious?" he asked.

"Oh yeah, it's the worst," Stiles said, dramatically. "But only once a month."

"Once a month?" Scott asked, confused, as Cara slowed.

"On the night of the full moon," Stiles said, unable to hide his grin any longer. "Awoooo." Scott smacked him in the chest, and Stiles laughed. "Hey, you're the one who heard a wolf howling," he said. "And Cara said it had red eyes. Sounds like monster movie material to me."

Cara bit her lip. "Like I said, it was too dark to see much," she said, forcing her voice to stay calm. Somehow, talking about the damn thing in the woods made it seem more real, and made it harder for her to believe it had just been her mind playing tricks on her in the dark. "Just know it was big." She'd clearly had her mother's warning about the full moon on her mind when she'd seen the thing, and it had distorted her perception about the thing that attacked Scott.

"There could be something seriously wrong with me!" Scott said, clearly freaked out.

"I know, you're a werewolf. Grrrrrr!" Stiles said, still laughing. Scott glared at him, and Stiles raised his hands. "Okay, obviously I'm kidding," Stiles said as Cara came to a stop, the boys pausing behind her.

"I'm pretty sure this is where it was," Cara said, pausing and looking around in askance.

Scott looked around too. "Yeah- there's the hill, and the deer were right up there, and the body was right there," he said, pointing.

"Maybe the killer moved the body?" Stiles said, kneeling down and looking thoughtfully at the ground.

"Well, I hope he left my inhaler. Those things are like eighty bucks," Scott said, stirring the leaves with his hand. Cara knelt down too, looking for her keys, both so focused on their search they didn't notice the guy in the black jacket appearing behind them until Stiles smacked Scott on the shoulder. Scott and Cara rose to their feet, and the trio stared at the guy.

"What are you doing here? This is private property," the man said, walking forwards and glaring at them.

"Sorry, man, we didn't know," Stiles said, raising his hands.

"Yeah we were just looking for- you know what, it doesn't matter," Scott said.

Cara rolled her eyes at them and turned towards the stranger. "Look, we're really sorry. My dog ran away into the preserve last night, and when we were looking for him, I lost my keys and he lost his inhaler. That's why we're out here. We didn't realize this was private property."

The man stared at her, his face dark. Without saying anything, he reached into his pocket and tossed something to her, then Scott. Cara looked down to see a familiar mace can attached to her keys. When she looked back up, the man had already walked away.

"Well, that was kinda creepy," she said, eyeing the place where he had stood.

"Makes sense," Stiles said. When Cara looked at him in askance, he looked at her with surprise. "What, that's Derek Hale."

"Who's that?" Scott asked, and Stiles rolled his eyes.

"He's only a few years older than us. You remember that big fire five years ago? Derek's whole family burned alive except for him and his sister," Stiles said, and Cara shivered.

"Well, as cheerful as that is, now that I have my keys, I'm going home to start making posters about Badru being missing. Do either of you need a ride?"

The boys both shook their heads, and Cara nodded and started to walk back towards the parking lot, followed by the boys. "Hey, if you bring some posters by the vet's office, I can pass them out to people, and make sure my boss keeps an eye out in case anyone brings him in. I work today and tomorrow," Scott said as they reached the parking lot.

Cara smiled at him, surprised by the offer. "Thanks, Scott," she said, touched. "I'd really appreciate that. I'm really starting to get worried about him, especially after you got attacked by that wolf- or whatever- last night," she said, shivering a little bit at the thought of the thing she had seen attack Scott. Turning back, she hurried towards her car, grateful that she at least had her can of mace back, as little use as it might be against something that big.

From his hiding place among the trees, Derek watched the girl walk away. Evidently Scott's abilities hadn't developed enough for him to be able to notice the jump in her heart rate when she said he was attacked by a wolf, but he had. In that moment, she had let out a wave of pure fear, so strong that Derek had instinctively tensed. Whatever she might be saying, it was clear that she had seen more than she was admitting that night, and he was going to find out what.


End file.
